As we walked, I thought over her words. It was kind of strange because she always said the angel in reaper blood or something to that effect. Never the angel in our blood. Must just be a way of speaking. Leave it to my brain to fixate on that and decide not to think at all about the blood-sucking, soul-consuming half-demons that liked to hunt people like me.
Those last three words stirred warmth in the space around my heart. All my life, so different from everyone around me. Now there were people like me. People who were happy to be my friends, or at least one anyway.
Bethany led me into the Midtween version of a coffee shop. It was large inside, but cozy with cushy couches curving around low, round tables. The soft murmur of voices inside stopped the moment I stepped through the door. Talk about everything reversing. In the mortal world—how easy it was to think of it that way already—no one really saw me, now everyone was looking.
The stares followed me as we went to one of the counters and told it what we wanted. By the time we took a seat on one of the couches, they’d gone back to their drinks. I sipped the lovely mix of coffee and vanilla, doing my best to relax. Again, though it was tasty, it was missing some element of the coffee I was used to.
“You okay?” Bethany asked, concern on her face.
“I’m fine.” The answer came out automatically.
“I hope all of the staring didn’t bother you.” She took a bite of the dinner plate-sized, glazed cinnamon roll she’d gotten.
“I’m fine.” I needed to change the direction of her thoughts. “So who is everyone anyway?”
Bethany scanned the room. “Older reapers. No one from Rowen’s group is here yet. They’ll be the ones you get to know the best; they are housed in our building or the next one over. We hang out with each other the most.”
“How many are in the group?” I eyed the room, taking another sip, careful not to burn my tongue. The couch was as comfortable as it looked and invited sitting for long periods.
“Not many.” She took a drink of her own coffee. “There aren’t many our age anyway. People over here aren’t terribly, uh, fertile. Probably due to the fact we don’t grow old and die. Including the both of us, there are eleven in Rowen’s group. There are probably about thirty others in the still-need-a-guide age range split between two other groups. They hang with each other, though, so we don’t usually see them.”
Once more I sensed an undercurrent. As if not only did my group rarely see the other groups, they didn’t particularly care to. Or at least Bethany didn’t. Maybe there was some competition. I was about to ask her about it when she said, “I guess technically there are only eight in our group. Ryan and Chelsea are both twenty-four. They really like each other but neither are ready to admit it, either to each other or to themselves. So frustrating.
“Brenden is twenty-three. They don’t require a guide anymore, although Rowen is always there for them if they need it. And the three of them don’t otherside alone, too dangerous, so they wait until Rowen can take the rest of us.”
“I turned eighteen three months ago. How old are you?” It was weird because I would never be able to tell who was young and who was old without asking. Alaric was the Head of the Reapers and looked to still be in his twenties.
“I turned eighteen six months ago.”
“That’s kind of a big age difference between us and the others you mentioned.”
She shrugged as she cut another bite with her fork. “Age differences aren’t such a big deal over here as they seem to be in the mortal world. I guess when neither of you are going to age, it doesn’t matter as much. Sometimes it can make world views a little too different. Which is why Ryan, Chelsea, and Brenden still hang with us I guess. We’re the closest to them in age. The next reaper who no longer needs a guide that’s closest to them in age is seventy.”
I nearly choked on my coffee and had to wipe the dribbles off my chin. “Yeah, I guess that is a bit old.”
“You’re still thinking like a mortal,” Bethany said with a chuckle. “Zachary doesn’t look any older than Rowen.”
Curiosity got the better of me. “How old is Rowen?”
“Somewhere in the realm of a thousand years. Not sure of the exact number.” She took another drink.
The offhand way she said it set my head to swimming. Apparently, someone that long-lived was no big deal. “Are there a lot of people that old around here?”
“Hmmm.” Bethany considered the coffee in her cup for a little bit before answering. “Not many. Alaric is a couple hundred years older than Rowen. Aaminah is only about seven hundred years. Most around here are around five hundred or less.”
“If we are immortal, how come the majority aren’t like a million years old or something?” It seemed strange that so few reached incredible ages.
“We are immortal only in the not aging and not getting diseases thing. We can still die. We get hunted by demonborn. Killed by eaters while reaping. We can even die in childbirth, or get hit by a car or shot while othersiding.” She turned a bracelet on her arm while she talked as if nervous with the answer.
Though I felt she was leaving something out, my brain latched on to one word during her explanation. “Eaters?”
“Soul eaters.” She wrinkled her nose. “When you have souls to guide, the eaters lurk in the space before you reach the River Styx. We have ways of defending ourselves and the souls in our charge, but sometimes we don’t have enough energy. Sometimes we lose the souls to them. Sometimes we lose the souls and ourselves to them. I think the eaters could probably even consume your soul.”
“Fabulous.” How was this life going to be any less dangerous than living out my life in the mortal world? Other than the disease thing, of course. I had no desire to die the same way as my mother.
A young man walked into the coffee shop and ordered from one of the counters. Taller than me, which was easy, with dark brown hair, and a good definition of muscle—evident with the way his black cloak hung open down the front, revealing the snug, light blue t-shirt underneath. His crystal blue eyes were lit with interest and humor, and he had an easy-going look about him.
He spotted Bethany and waved. She returned the gesture then went further by waving him over to us. When he reached the table, Bethany motioned toward me and said, “This is Jo.”
He nodded at me as he slid into the booth on my other side, setting a coffee and a huge, flaky pastry down. “I’m James, part of Rowen’s group. You must be our mystery girl.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, all cloak and dagger at your service.” I glanced down at what I was wearing. “Well, I have the cloak thing going on anyway.”
With a laugh, James glanced at Bethany. “Oh I like her.” He draped an arm over my shoulders. “So, tell me all about growing up on the otherside.”
I wasn’t sure what the deal was with him. His arm over my shoulders didn’t bother me, even though I wasn’t usually the touchy-feely type. It didn’t feel intimate or uncomfortable, but it was strange to have someone seem to instantly like me enough to say so. “Is it really so unusual that I grew up over there?”
“Uh, yeah,” James answered. “No one has ever been born or grown up over there.”
“Not since the veils came down between worlds a little over ten-thousand years or so ago,” Bethany corrected.
“Yeah, but no one from that time is left alive, so it might as well be never,” James said.
“Great.” I couldn’t help the sour note in my voice. “First, I was a freak in the mortal world, now here.”
“Don’t worry about it. It makes you unique.” His arm hugged me to his side. “Besides, no one who is my girl is a freak.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Your girl?”
“I claim you as mine,” he said dramatically. “Seriously, though, I like you. And claim you as friend, if you will have me.”
“You better watch it, James,” Bethany said with a wicked smile. “Aaron is going to think you’ve switched sides and get jealous.”
James covered his heart. “As long as Jo never leaves me, it will all be good.”
I glanced up as a young man with an Asian cast to his features and clear hazel eyes sat down on the couch, a coffee in one hand, the other linking with James’s free hand. “Cheating on me?”
“Jo, this is Aaron, my boyfriend. He’s also part of Rowen’s group,” James said to me before turning to Aaron. “She’s promised to always be mine. A hard offer to pass up.”
Bethany glared at Aaron. “I’m surprised at you, accusing James of cheating when you have pledged your heart to me.”
The three of them broke into laughter and it took me a minute to catch up. Okay, so there wasn’t some weird soap opera type thing going on. Once relieved of the worry of a real confrontation, I was able to laugh with them.
“So this city, Midtween, where exactly is it?” I asked, trying to find a way to orient myself in my new world.
“Between lies in the center,” Aaron said, setting his coffee in the middle of the table. “It’s surrounded by the Heavens, the Hells, Purgatory, Summer, the Waiting, and the mortal world.” Aaron moved the rest of the coffees and plates until they circled his coffee. “Midtween is in the center of Between. It’s the only city of people in the Between. Thick veils separate all of the worlds.”
“Except Midtween and Between, there is no veil separating us, just an invisible barrier that lets us go through if we want, but keeps the residents of Between from coming in.” James grabbed his cup from the arrangement and drained the last of it. “No one ventures beyond the city borders, though.”
I wrinkled my brow. “Why?”
Bethany paused in lifting her fork, the thick icing dripping back onto the plate. “It’s too dangerous. Many of the creatures you believe are myth live there. Fallen angels live there. Plus,” She gestured with the fork, nearly dislodging the piece of cinnamon roll on it, “half the foliage is sentient and either carnivorous or defensive of its area.”
“Stay in the city limits, got it.” I took the last drink from my cup as Bethany renewed her efforts to devour the cinnamon roll. At least everyone here seemed to have an appetite that matched mine. Maybe the angel in me was why I had such a high metabolism.
“Not like you will have much chance to worry about wandering beyond them for a while anyway,” Aaron said. “Rowen is going to drive you hard to learn how to harness and use the energy of a reaper. How to create a staff to defend yourself with, and how to shift into a raven in the veil and in the mortal world.”
“How to what?” Had I heard him right? “Like, shapeshift?”
“All crosses can do it. Reapers, guardians, and demonborn.” Bethany shrugged like it was no big deal. Maybe to her, it wasn’t. “But only in the veil or the mortal world. We can’t shift in the Between.”
“No shifting in the Between which I will never go to.” I nodded.
“Better tell her the female stuff,” James mumbled around a mouthful of pastry.
“Oh, yeah.” Bethany motioned toward me with another bite of cinnamon roll. “You won’t have monthly bleeding anymore. So don’t freak out when it doesn’t come.”
“I won’t what?” Don’t get me wrong, the idea sounded great but…what?
“Now that you live on this side, your angel genetics are going to be stronger than your mortal human genetics. Things are different on this side. You can still have kids and all, eventually, but our bodies don’t gear up for it the way mortal bodies do or something like that. Truthfully, I never thought I would encounter someone from the mortal world living here, so I never thought about it.”
“If we didn’t all study the mortal world extensively before we began reaping, I probably wouldn’t even have thought to mention it.” James shrugged and cut off another big bite of his pastry. “There is considerable literature on the other side about the subject of mortals’ monthly cycles.”
“So I’m guessing you don’t have birth control over here?” I’d never had sex and didn’t see it happening anytime soon. I would probably have to at least kiss someone before sex could happen, but I had to ask.
Bethany shrugged. “It’s not something that’s needed. Most in Midtween are usually in their sixties before it’s even possible to get pregnant. Though it has, on extremely rare occasions, happened when a reaper is in her forties.”
James offered me a bite of pastry, which I took as Bethany continued, “Besides, like I said, pregnancy doesn’t happen often anyway. I don’t know anyone who isn’t overjoyed when it finally happens. My parents are both over three hundred years old and I’m their only child. James’s parents are the same age as Rowen. He had one older brother who would be about four hundred now if he hadn’t been killed by an eater. “
I didn’t even know how to respond to that, so I concentrated on the people around me to keep my suddenly whirling mind grounded. It was a lot to take in. A whole new world, a whole new life, new everything. It should have scared me. Instead, it was a relief in a way. I finally seemed to fit in somewhere.
Plus, with so much new being thrown at me, it kept my mind from dwelling on my mother. Since that was the last thing I wanted to think about, I welcomed the distraction my new life brought.
One by one, the others of Rowen’s group showed up. It was a heady experience, going from zero friends to a whole group of them in less than a day. By the time I fell exhausted into my bed, I had ten new friends and a whole new life ahead of me.
***
“Ah, yes, the distrust of the demonborn. Not that I can truly blame them. Standing with them one time doesn’t erase the millennia before, or the centuries since.” ~Caius
Chapter 6
Six months after leaving the mortal world, I approached Rowen with some trepidation. This was the first day I would actually be reaping. I had spent the past six months learning the history of my new world and learning to shift into a raven—which came as natural as breathing. There were also all of the countless grueling hours spent with Alaric, learning to tap into my angel powers and create a staff of pure energy—which hadn’t come naturally at all. It hadn’t been easy and it took Alaric finally letting an eater loose on me before I finally achieved the staff. Then more hours spent learning to fight well enough with it to defeat an eater. That part was easier because although they were huge and freaky, they didn’t seem to have a lot of brain power.
There were still a lot of holes in my knowledge of my new world, but Rowen said all of the important stuff was covered. Today, it would become my responsibility to lead souls to the river. The bundle of nerves in my stomach played havoc with it to the point I hadn’t even been able to eat a proper breakfast.
It wasn’t just my new responsibilities that made me nervous. There were more than a few in the Heavens and the Hells who weren’t happy with the revelation of what Elijah had done. True angel hybrids weren’t supposed to exist. Some of the unhappiest thought it should stay that way. Aaminah, Alaric, and Rowen argued vehemently against such action.
Thankfully, we were being given a chance and the extra pressure added weight to the knot in my gut. I needed to be good at this. There were already rumors of war between the disagreeing sides, I didn’t want to add fuel to it by failing at reaping.
Rowen stood near the wall of windows with people behind them. When I reached him he indicated the line forming. “Get in line to get your supplies for the day.”
I scooted in behind someone, hoping the people at the windows wouldn’t miss me since the girl ahead of me and the guy who got in line behind me were both several inches taller. It seemed everyone was taller than me on this side of the veil. I rubbed absently at the spot on my arm where they’d taken a sample of my blood weeks before so my essence could be added to the replenisher. If it wasn’t added, the replenisher would work as well as plain water to heal me.
When it was finally my turn, I was given a scroll with a list of names on it at the first window. A quick glance showed only ten charges on it. Rowen had said my first day would be
exceptionally light. After that, I would get a full list, along with everyone else.
The guy behind the next window gave me a soft leather bag filled with palm-sized, ancient-looking, gold coins. At the third window, a woman pushed a small satchel about the size of a large wallet across the counter at me.
When I opened it to inspect the contents, I found several vials filled with a blue liquid that glowed slightly. Ugh, I’d already come into contact with that stuff. Just the memory of it made me shudder. Bethany assured me that I would never get used to the taste.
After I tucked the satchel into a deep pocket in my cloak, I joined Rowen at the bank of elevators. We took the first car that opened up and were followed in by several other reapers, who started announcing names and ages.
Rowen motioned toward the scroll. “Tell the elevator the first person on your list.”
I rolled open the scroll and read off my first charge, “Ava Swanson, age…four?”
Stricken, I turned my gaze to Rowen. He shrugged. “Your first isn’t going to be an easy one.”
A couple of the other reapers in the car cast me sympathetic looks. One of them, a girl that looked a couple of years older than me, leaned closer and said, “They all die, some just sooner than others. Just remember, she’s your charge. Sometimes kneeling down so you’re on their level makes it easier to get the situation across. And you will be surprised at how much even the youngest understand.”
I nodded, my throat too tight to respond in any other way.
The car stopped, a quiet voice calling out a name and age. One of the reapers left, the doors slid shut and the elevator began to move. Each time it stopped it opened in a new place, sometimes it revealed a doorway in a house, sometimes a hospital, sometimes a street.
It slid to stop yet again, the doors opened and the voice chimed, “Ava Swanson.”
I swallowed and stepped into a hospital hallway. People moved up and down the hallway, sometimes walking straight through me. Though I couldn’t feel it, it was still unnerving. As Rowen explained it, we weren’t on either side of the veil but rather in the veil itself.
Unveiled (Raven Daughter Book 1) Page 5
